Mama2 you bring up a good point--when I shopped for my wedding gown it was interesting. We had budgeted about 2500 for a gown, I had no intentions of going that high but wanted the option available...We went into a shop (in tshirt and shorts as it was summer) that did carry higher end gowns (monique's etc) and the woman who owned the shop actually scoffed when I asked what size the sample was. She literally said "only our employees model the samples so they don't get tattered, when you pay in full you are able to try on your gown in your size, but I don't expect you can afford this gown, it's $3500." My mom did not care for that assumption that we were broke and pretneded to be excited it was so inexpensive. The woman's attitude suddenly changed and she offered us her wedding planning services. The owner was like chasing us out the door trying to get us back in to buy it.
I have had some really interesting, and some very paintful, shopping experiences--Ive even gone so far as to do a "sociology experiment" in this. When we travel, we go to mostly shopping destinations, LA, NY, etc. I go with lists of things Id like to purchase and set aside lots of money to buy these things with should I be able to. We don't always dress nicely--I almost always wear a fitted tshirt and jeans and either running shoes, flipflops or some diesel, tsubo, sketchers..some kind of neat shoe (though never heels bec I can't walk in them). When my DH goes in with me he usually just says I dont care get whatever you want. And sometimes salespeople FLOCK to me.
In St. Louis where I live:
It seems that unless I wear my big "Fake" wedding set (I bought it for my honeymoon so my real one wouldn't get destroyed or lost) I get literally IGNORED in NM or
Saks or some of the boutiques in that area. Somehow no matter how well I dress and if I wear my real wedding set--which is nothing to sneeze at, I get completely ignored. I could THROW money at them and they would look past me. Actually I take that back-SECURITY watches me. The only places I get attention, regardless of attire, are
Nordstrom which I go to most of the time, jewelry stores (go figure) and candy stores, as Im a chocolate freak.
In California: In San Francisco, even though we stuck out as obvious tourists (my DH and I are pretty chubby folks, Im a size 16 with a bit of a tummy), every shop we went in, clothing or otherwise, they treated us nicely, not like castoffs. Got seated at several fine restaurants.
But in Santa Monica...I was just some grotesque joke of a human not worthy of anything but mockery. I know I am chubby so having salespeople remind me in the cruelest ways was hard to accept...and what I learned there is unless I shopped for handbags, shoes, makeup, chocolates or jewelry, I get not only "avoided", I get made fun of, and the worst experience I had for that was in shops in Santa Monica, along Montana and at Fred Segal (actually both this and the Melrose location...) being the worst. Kitson on Robertson wasn't pleasant really either. At the SM Fred Segal, I was ready to buy a $500 handbag and some items in the beauty dept, as well as tiny little necklace for my friend's bday gift...I was walking through the jeans dept to pay for my items, wallet in hand, and heard laughing and turned around to see two sales women literally pointing and laughing at me to another male salesperson, and since I was the only person in the freaking store that didn't work there..I figured it had to be me. I knew nothing clothingwise in the entire store could possibly fit me, which is why I didn't actually look at any. I asked if there was a problem, and they kind of whispered like "oh sh!t she heard us" and I looked aroundto see if maybe I had something on my butt or back...and then they literally cracked up. I dropped all the items in my hand onto the floor like an angry child and walked out. Someone who I assume was a manager stopped me as I walked towards the exit to see if there was anything she could help me with since I guess she saw tears on my cheeks and I said apparently I don't belong in this store, and my money isn't worth having. She apologized, and seemed sincere, but it was done. I walked to the car outside in tears, and my husband knew it was just a bad day. I wanted to just go back to our hotel and be left alone. The only good clothing related experience I had was at the Gap in the promenade. Those folks actually gave a crap and talked to me, and helped me and complimented my hair and were shocked when I told them how much it costs to get it done here in STL versus out there (it's like 1/4 the cost!!!). We got ok service at the restaurants we went to that were actual restaurants in LA, couldn't get a table at a couple places but it looked like the place was jampacked so that was fine.
In NYC:
I got treated mostly well there, much like sanfran. There were a few shops where we got snooty attitudes. We never had trouble getting a table even in the poshest restaurants but I think that was bec we made reservations months in advance of our trip. I asked the dresscode at the posher places and we adhered to it.
In Vegas:
Never one time were we treated like 2nd class citizens in any shop. No matter what. We were seated at Mesa Grill with no problems even though we were dressed like bums. Harry Winston and Fred Leighton were pleased to assist me in trying things on, and complimented my wedding set profusely, asking why Id want something different. Debeers as well.
"eliteness" in stores?
Wish list (LV):
going to hell in a "handbag"
picture post coming soon!
"Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out". John Wooden
